Recommended Daily Allowances

The recommended daily allowances for various nutrients – before conception, during pregnancy, and while you are breastfeeding your baby are different for each phase.

Eating right before pregnancy helps in getting pregnant faster and ensures healthy pregnancy along with healthy baby. Eating for two doesn't mean that you have to eat twice as much. But eating right kind of food is more important. You just need 300 extra calories per day while pregnant and 400 extra calories while nursing.

Recommended allowance of nutrients are as follows:

Nutrients for Pregnant Women

Kilocalories - 2500

Vitamin A (mcg) - 770

Vitamin B6 (mg)- 1.9

Riboflavin (mg) - 1.4

Thiamin (mg)- 1.4

Vitamin D (mcg)- 5

Vitamin E (mg)- 15

Vitamin K (mcg)- 90

Calcium (mg)- 1000

Folic acid (mcg)- 600

Iodine (mcg)- 220

Iron (mg ferrous iron)- 27

Magnesium (mg)- 350 - 360

Niacin (mg)- 18

Phosphorous (mg)- 700

Protein (g)- 50

Zinc (mg)- 11

To make sure that you and your baby are getting all the essential nutrients in the right amount, you need to monitor your diet very closely. Pregnancy nutrition is the invariable part of the healthy pregnancy.

If you are vegetarian you should make additional dietary changes. To get appropriate dietary information and to choose the right kind of food read our article on the vegetarian diet during pregnancy.

As pregnancy requires additional nutrients, to fill in any nutritional gaps daily prenatal vitamin are usually recommended by your doctor or health care provider.